iw Google runs on a distributed network of thousands of low-cost computers and can therefore carry out fast parallel processing. Parallel processing is a method of computation in which many calculations can be performed simultaneously, significantly speeding up data processing. Google has three distinct parts:

Googlebot, a web crawler that finds and fetches web pages.

The indexer that sorts every word on every page and stores the resulting index of words in a huge database.

The query processor, which compares your search query to the index and recommends the documents that it considers most relevant.

1. Googlebot, Google’s Web Crawler

Googlebot is Google’s web crawling robot, which finds and retrieves pages on the web and hands them off to the Google indexer. It’s easy to imagine Googlebot as a little spider scurrying across the strands of cyberspace, but in reality Googlebot doesn’t traverse the web at all. It functions much like your web browser, by sending a request to a web server for a web page, downloading the entire page, then handing it off to Google’s indexer.

Googlebot consists of many computers requesting and fetching pages much more quickly than you can with your web browser. In fact, Googlebot can request thousands of different pages simultaneously. To avoid overwhelming web servers, or crowding out requests from human users, Googlebot deliberately makes requests of each individual web server more slowly than it’s capable of doing.
Googlebot finds pages in two ways: through an add URL form, www.google.com/addurl.html, and through finding links by crawling the web.

Unfortunately, spammers figured out how to create automated bots that bombarded the add URL form with millions of URLs pointing to commercial propaganda. Google rejects those URLs submitted through its Add URL form that it suspects are trying to deceive users by employing tactics such as including hidden text or links on a page, stuffing a page with irrelevant words, cloaking (aka bait and switch), using sneaky redirects, creating doorways, domains, or sub-domains with substantially similar content, sending automated queries to Google, and linking to bad neighbors. So now the Add URL form also has a test: it displays some squiggly letters designed to fool automated “letter-guessers”; it asks you to enter the letters you see — something like an eye-chart test to stop spambots.

When Googlebot fetches a page, it culls all the links appearing on the page and adds them to a queue for subsequent crawling. Googlebot tends to encounter little spam because most web authors link only to what they believe are high-quality pages. By harvesting links from every page it encounters, Googlebot can quickly build a list of links that can cover broad reaches of the web. This technique, known as deep crawling, also allows Googlebot to probe deep within individual sites. Because of their massive scale, deep crawls can reach almost every page in the web. Because the web is vast, this can take some time, so some pages may be crawled only once a month.

Although its function is simple, Googlebot must be programmed to handle several challenges. First, since Googlebot sends out simultaneous requests for thousands of pages, the queue of “visit soon” URLs must be constantly examined and compared with URLs already in Google’s index. Duplicates in the queue must be eliminated to prevent Googlebot from fetching the same page again. Googlebot must determine how often to revisit a page. On the one hand, it’s a waste of resources to re-index an unchanged page. On the other hand, Google wants to re-index changed pages to deliver up-to-date results.

To keep the index current, Google continuously recrawls popular frequently changing web pages at a rate roughly proportional to how often the pages change. Such crawls keep an index current and are known as fresh crawls. Newspaper pages are downloaded daily, pages with stock quotes are downloaded much more frequently. Of course, fresh crawls return fewer pages than the deep crawl. The combination of the two types of crawls allows Google to both make efficient use of its resources and keep its index reasonably current.

2. Google’s Indexer

Googlebot gives the indexer the full text of the pages it finds. These pages are stored in Google’s index database. This index is sorted alphabetically by search term, with each index entry storing a list of documents in which the term appears and the location within the text where it occurs. This data structure allows rapid access to documents that contain user query terms.

To improve search performance, Google ignores (doesn’t index) common words called stop words (such as the, is, on, or, of, how, why, as well as certain single digits and single letters). Stop words are so common that they do little to narrow a search, and therefore they can safely be discarded. The indexer also ignores some punctuation and multiple spaces, as well as converting all letters to lowercase, to improve Google’s performance.

3. Google’s Query Processor

The query processor has several parts, including the user interface (search box), the “engine” that evaluates queries and matches them to relevant documents, and the results formatter.PageRank is Google’s system for ranking web pages. A page with a higher PageRank is deemed more important and is more likely to be listed above a page with a lower PageRank.
Google considers over a hundred factors in computing a PageRank and determining which documents are most relevant to a query, including the popularity of the page, the position and size of the search terms within the page, and the proximity of the search terms to one another on the page. A patent application discusses other factors that Google considers when ranking a page. Visit SEOmoz.org’s report for an interpretation of the concepts and the practical applications contained in Google’s patent application.

Google also applies machine-learning techniques to improve its performance automatically by learning relationships and associations within the stored data. For example, the spelling-correcting system uses such techniques to figure out likely alternative spellings. Google closely guards the formulas it uses to calculate relevance; they’re tweaked to improve quality and performance, and to outwit the latest devious techniques used by spammers.

Indexing the full text of the web allows Google to go beyond simply matching single search terms. Google gives more priority to pages that have search terms near each other and in the same order as the query. Google can also match multi-word phrases and sentences. Since Google indexes HTML code in addition to the text on the page, users can restrict searches on the basis of where query words appear, e.g., in the title, in the URL, in the body, and in links to the page, options offered by Google’s Advanced Search Form and Using Search Operators (Advanced Operators).

What is Overclocking?
Most people know that overclocking means to run a particular piece of computer equipment at a higher speed than it was intended to run at. But how and why is that possible?

Let's say that you have a 2.0ghz processor and you overclock it to 2.5ghz. Why didn't the maker sell it as a 2.5ghz chip? Wouldn't they make more money? The answer is that they have to sell the chips at the lowest common speed for the whole set. Every chip that's sold as a particular speed needs to be able to run at that speed on the lowest quality equipment. The makers can't guarantee what quality components the chip will run with, and therefore they have to make sure it will run with anything. This is where overclocking comes in. An overclocker will use the quality "headroom" to run the chip faster than it's intended to run. And with quality componets, this is not only possible, but also can be very rewarding.

Processor Terminology:
When someone describes the speed of their processor, they will generally use two terms: FSB/HTT and Multiplier. So what do these mean?

FSB/HTT:
FSB stands for Front Side Bus, and refers to the speed at which your processor can talk to your memory. In the AMD world, this is also referred to as HTT, which stands for Hyper-Transport Technology. This is the easiest and most common speed to adjust for overclocking. This speed setting is limited only by the motherboard, which will have a maximum selection. However, any decent overclocking motherboard should allow you to set this speed much higher than will ever be practical. If there were a single "one stop shop" for overclocking settings, this would probably be it.

FSB can be tricky with DDR memory though. DDR stands for Double Data Rate because the data uses both rising and falling edges of the clock pulses, but that's another lesson entirely. The important word is "double". DDR 400 memory actually runs at a FSB of 200 in the motherboard settings, but because it's -double- data rate, it is actually rated at 400. This very same memory can also be rated as PC3200. That means that the memory will move 3.2gb of data per second at stock speeds. The 400 and the 3200 are pretty meaningless when dealing with overclocking, however. The important part is that it will run at a FSB/HTT of 200.

Multiplier:
So now we understand the speed at which the processor talks to the memory, but how fast does it do its internal calculations? How fast does it run all by itself? The multiplier tells us this. If the front side bus is 200 and the multiplier is 10x, then we know that the processor runs at 200 x 10 = 2000mhz or 2ghz. The multiplier is a way of describing the internal speed in relation to the FSB. So taking the multiplier and multiplying it by the FSB speed will give you the actual speed of the processor.

The multiplier setting is used to overclock the chip, but not nearly as frequently as the FSB setting. The reason for this is that most newer chips have what is referred to as a "locked multiplier", which means that it cannot be set to other settings. Sometimes, this means that the setting cannot be changed at all, but more often it means that it can be set lower than stock, but not higher. Typically, if the multiplier is 10x (for example), then it can be set to 9x or 8x, but not 11x or 12x.

Voltages:
In almost every case, a chip will need more voltage than it gets at stock in order to reach is maximum overclock. But what are the different voltage settings and what do they mean? The two most common voltages that you will deal with are vCore and vDimm.

vCore is the voltage of the processor itself. This is the voltage you will use to control the chip. As overclocks become unstable, you can use this setting to increase the processor voltage and make the chip more stable.

vDimm is the voltage of the memory. This is not used quite as often, but is still important to understand. The memory can (and usually will) be overclocked as well, and vDimm can be used to increase stability in ram just as vCore can be used for processors.

Limiting Factors:
OK, so let's be honest. That 2.0ghz chip of yours just isn't going to reach 5.0ghz. We know it. But why? What are the factors that will hold a chip back? There are three main factors that will limit maximum speed of your chip. The most obvious of these is what most people call the "ceiling". No matter how good the chip is, at some point it will simply reach the fastest speed that it's capable of. The other two factors are more in depth, however.

Heat - Heat is usually the biggest factor in a chip's performance. Higher speeds and more voltage makes more heat in the chip. And more heat in the chip can lead to failures or instability and can even lead to permanant damage if not fixed early. This is why adaquite cooling is a MUST for overclocking. This is also why it is important to monitor your system, but more on that later. Sometimes, you could know that your chip is capable of faster speeds, but it will run too hot and therefore will be limited in its speed.

Voltage - Increasing voltage can make an unstable processor stable, but it's more complex than that. Processors are not meant to run higher voltages than stock, and can be damaged by too much voltage even if heat is managed properly. Just like with heat, a processor could reach a point where it can go higher but it might be at a voltage that isn't safe and therefore isn't recommended.

Dividers:
In my opinion, memory dividers are under-rated in the overclocking world. A lot of times, an overclocked system will reach an instability or fail point, and it will not be clear whether the processor or the memory has failed. For this reason, people are always looking to test one part individually. A memory divider can let you do this.

Memory dividers allow you to run the memory at a slower speed than the chip. So, for example, you could run your chip's FSB at 250mhz, but run the memory at 208mhz. This is done using a 5:6 memory divider. (250 * 5/6 = 208) By doing this, you can slow your memory down to stable speeds and only overclock the processor. This allows you to attribute any instability directly to the processor, rather than having to guess what is causing it.

Slower memory speeds are often undesirable for a system, since they slow the memory down, but they can be used for two reasons. First is for testing, as mentioned above. By slowing the memory down to stock speeds or lower, you can be sure that the memory is not causing overclocking failures. The other reason to do this is that some processors simply can't support memory speeds that high. By slowing the memory down, some chips can actually overclock much further, so even though the memory is slower, the system as a whole will run faster.

Memory dividers can also be referred to as "max memory speeds". A 5:6 memory divider may be referred to as 166 max memory speed, since 5/6 * 200 = 166. Another example would be a 1:2 divider and a 100 max memory.

Monitoring:
As mentioned previously, it is highly recommended that an overclocked system be monitored in many ways. Many software packages monitor things like temperatures, voltages, fan speeds, clock speeds, memory settings, etc. Monitoring these readouts allows you to find and solve problems before they become serious. If you don't watch these readouts, you may not discover a problem until it is too late and damage has been done. Here is a list of some of the most popular programs:

CPU-Z
This program is probably the most widely accepted speed monitor out there. It can tell you all the pertinant information about your processor, including speeds, FSB, Multiplier, voltages, memory speeds, memory settings, and much more. This is basically a "must have" program for overclocking.

Motherboard Monitor 5 (MBM)
This is a widely used program which is generally targetted at monitoring temperatures, but can also be configured to show things like voltages and fan speeds. By default, the program will display the case and processor temperatures in your system tray. The program is somewhat "out of date" and doesn't support many new motherboards without modification, but is still widely accepted as a standard.

ITE Smart Guardian
This program has different versions for different motherboards, so make sure you download the appropriate one. For this reason, there is no link. The program monitors temperatures, fan speeds, and voltages. It is regularly used on newer motherboards in place of MBM5.

SpeedFan
This is very similar to ITE Smart Guardian in that it monitors temperatures, fan speeds, and voltages, but it can also be used to change fan speeds at the software level.

[u]Everest[/u]This program can be used to access temperature, fan, and voltage info much like the others listed above, but its real value is in the ability to get TONS of useful information about your computer. It can tell you pretty much anything you want to know about your PC, statistically speaking. I have found this program useful for varifying the BIOS version of my motherboard, though there are MANY other uses for it.

Stability Testing:
Overclocking is fun and beneficial, but can also cause major problems with your PC. A computer that is improperly overclocked can cause crashes, reboots, power-downs, data corruption, and eventually even permanant hardware damage. Again, it is important to diagnose these failures early on so that they don't escalate to bigger problems. This is why ANY good overclocker will have a toolbelt full of stress/stability tests to check their system with. An overclocked PC does you no good if it's not stable. Running games faster does you no good if they crash at random. Overclocking needs to be kept in check with stability testing whenever settings are changed. Different people will have different definitions of "true stability", but all overclockers should know how to test for it. Here is a list of commonly used stress test programs:

Prime 95
This is a distributed computing project, but can also be used strictly for stability testing. As with most programs, it uses strenuous math calculations to see if your processor ever produces failures (wrong answers). If there were a single universal "final stability test", Prime 95 could arguably take that title. It is widely accepted and very reliable.

OCCTThis project is no longer being continued, but the tool is still incredibly useful. OCCT has two modes: A standard stability test and a torture test. The standard test runs for 30min and is a very good stability indicator. After the 30min test completes, it shows graphs of temperatures and voltages which is a feature that is not really found in other programs, and is very useful. The torture test simply runs until stopped and reports any instability, much like Prime 95.
New version link added. This now supports multi-core stability testing.

SuperPi
SuperPI is actually a benchmark program, and gets its name from the calculations of Pi digits that it performs. SuperPI speeds are a good indicator of a processor's speed, but the tests will also report instabilities as they occur. This program can run very quick stability tests that are surprisingly accurate given their speed. This is another "must have" in my opinion.

MemTest86
This test is used to test just your memory, as the name implies. It can either be booted from a floppy disk or a CD-ROM. Once it is booted and running, it runs multiple test patterns on your memory until it is stopped, and reports errors as they happen. This test is very good for testing the memory alone, and helps to confirm that your memory will run at the speed and voltage you have set.

Overclocking Process
Overclocking is an art. Juggling the various settings can seem overwhelming initially, and it's often difficult to fight the urge to raise an overclock quickly. It is very important to be patient and take baby steps while making adjustments.

In general, the overclocking procedure is - 1. Increase the external clock speed by a small amount. 2. Exit BIOS and boot to operating system. 3. Test for stability and monitor temperatures. 4. Return to BIOS, tweak settings, and repeat process.
In greater detail -

1) Baby steps- Increase the external clock speed in small increments. "Small" is relative to the stock speed of the system, though 3-5 MHz is common for Pentiums while 5-10 MHz is common for newer CPUs. These numbers can be responsibly tweaked for a variety of reasons including personal experience and knowledge that a particular CPU stepping/week/batch is a good/bad overclocker. The steps can also be larger early in the overclocking process and smaller as the system gets closer to its limits. The important thing is to not take too large of a step as too many other variables can change if large jumps are made.

2) Boot up- Be sure to save your settings before rebooting. Some motherboards offer overclocking profiles, which can save settings after a CMOS reset or even a BIOS flash. Unsuccessful boots are not uncommon. Either return to step 1 and lower the external clock speed or jump to step 4 for other tweaks.3) Stability testing- There are a variety of stability testing programs available, and they should be employed frequently during the course of overclocking. The extent of stability testing is up to individual preference, and there are a wide variety of philosophies concerning testing. It is generally a good idea to do at least a brief test at every step with a more thorough test every few steps.test with the softwares as mentioned in the earlier post.

4)Return to BIOS and tweak - If stability testing was successful, return to step 1 and further increase the external clock speed. If the system booted but did not test stable, there are several settings which may help. They include -
• Adjust vcore - Increase the vcore one notch and repeat the testing. If more than two notches are required, try adjusting another setting.
• Adjust RAM timings and vdimm - If a bit of vcore doesn't do the trick or Memtest86 identified the RAM as the source of instability, tweak the RAM settings. Loosening RAM timings and/or increasing vdimm may address this issue. Be aware that excessive vdimm will void most manufacturers' warranties.
• Adjust Northbridge voltage - Higher frequencies require additional voltage to the NB. In general, this setting only goes up a few notches from stock speed to extreme overclocks. Stock Northbridge coolers may not be able to handle additional voltage, so it may be necessary to invest in aftermarket cooling.
As with increasing the clock speed, it is important to change these settings in small steps, reboot, and test for stability.

Maximizing the Overclock on a System

One way to simplify overclocking is to initially take the RAM out of the equation. Select a divider such that the RAM does not exceed stock speeds; this permits attention to be focused on the CPU and motherboard. Once the maximum overclock of those two components is found, manipulate the divider to determine the optimal frequency for the RAM. Be sure to use Memtest86 to test RAM stability. A few complete passes with that software is generally a good indication of stability.

Manipulating the CPU multiplier can lead to better performance on systems that support that feature. First, find the maximum CPU frequency as described above with the stock multiplier. Then, determine other combinations of external clock speed and multiplier that equate to the same CPU frequency. Using the example from item number 6, above, that CPU could equally handle 400x9 and 450x8. If the RAM and motherboard could safely handle the higher frequencies, the lower multiplier would most likely produce the best performance. Trial and error plays into this equation as well, due to the complexities of modern systems. It is important to benchmark a system with appropriate applications (e.g. using gaming benchmarks for a gaming system, productivity benchmarks for an office system, etc.) to see which combination of settings provide the best performance. Remember that each set of components is unique, and that the goal of overclocking is performance not any specified settings.

They said Windows 7 was just a cosmetic upgrade, a more polished version of Vista with little to offer beyond the new wallpaper.

They couldn't have been more wrong.

Look beyond the headlines about interface tweaks and you'll find Windows 7 is crammed with lesser known, but still important, new and enhanced features, which taken together deliver improved performance and productivity, better troubleshooting, stronger security and a whole lot more.

Read on for 50 ways in which Windows 7 will make a real difference to your PC.

1. Problem Steps Recorder
As the local PC guru you're probably very used to friends and family asking for help with their computer problems, yet having no idea how to clearly describe what's going on. It's frustrating, but Microsoft feels your pain, and Windows 7 will include an excellent new solution in the Problem Steps Recorder.

When any app starts misbehaving under Windows 7 then all your friends need do is click Start, type PSR and press [Enter], then click Start Record. If they then work through whatever they're doing then the Problem Steps Recorder will record every click and keypress, take screen grabs, and package everything up into a single zipped MHTML file when they're finished, ready for emailing to you. It's quick, easy and effective, and will save you hours of troubleshooting time.

2. Burn images
Windows 7 finally introduces a feature that other operating systems have had for years - the ability to burn ISO images to CDs or DVDs. And it couldn't be much easier to use. Just double-click the ISO image, choose the drive with the blank disc, click Burn and watch as your disc is created.

3. Create and mount VHD files
Microsoft's Virtual PC creates its virtual machine hard drives in VHD files, and Windows 7 can now mount these directly so you can access them in the host system. Click Start, type diskmgmt.msc and press [Enter], then click Action > Attach VHD and choose the file you'd like to mount. It will then appear as a virtual drive in Explorer and can be accessed, copied or written just like any other drive.

Click Action > Create VHD and you can now create a new virtual drive of your own (right-click it, select Initialise Disk, and after it's set up right-click the unallocated space and select New Simple Volume to set this up). Again, you'll be left with a virtual drive that behaves just like any other, where you can drag and drop files, install programs, test partitioning software or do whatever you like. But it's actually just this VHD file on your real hard drive which you can easily back up or share with others. Right-click the disk (that's the left-hand label that says "Disk 2" or whatever) and select Detach VHD to remove it.

The command line DISKPART utility has also been upgraded with tools to detach a VHD file, and an EXPAND command to increase a virtual disk's maximum size. Don't play around with this unless you know what you're doing, though - it's all too easy to trash your system.

4. Troubleshoot problems
If some part of Windows 7 is behaving strangely, and you don't know why, then click Control Panel > Find and fix problems (or 'Troubleshooting') to access the new troubleshooting packs. These are simple wizards that will resolve common problems, check your settings, clean up your system and more.

5. Startup repair
Windows 7 is more reliable than we'd expect from a beta, but you still might run into problems, and the worst might stop it from booting. Even into Safe Mode. And that's very bad news if you downloaded Windows 7, as you've no CD or DVD to use for re-installation. Which is why you need to click Start > Maintenance > Create a System Repair Disc, right now, and let Windows 7 build a bootable emergency disc. If the worst does happen then it could be the only way to get your PC running again.

6. Take control
Tired of the kids installing dubious software or running applications you'd rather they left alone? AppLocker is a new Windows 7 feature that ensures users can only run the programs you specify. Don't worry, that's easier to set up than it sounds: you can create a rule to allow everything signed by a particular publisher, so choose Microsoft, say, and that one rule will let you run all signed Microsoft applications. Launch GPEDIT.MSC and go to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Application Control Policies > AppLocker to get a feel for how this works.

7. Calculate more
At first glance the Windows 7 calculator looks just like Vista's version, but explore the Mode menu and you'll see powerful new Statistics and Programmer views. And if you're clueless about bitwise manipulation, then try the Options menu instead. This offers many different unit conversions (length, weight, volume and more), date calculations (how many days between two dates?), and spreadsheet-type templates to help you calculate vehicle mileage, mortgage rates and more.

Don't take any Windows 7 applet at face value, then - there are some very powerful new features hidden in the background. Be sure to explore every option in all Windows applets to ensure you don't miss anything important.

8. Switch to a projector
Windows 7 now provides a standard way to switch your display from one monitor to another, or a projector - just press Win+P or run DisplaySwitch.exe and choose your preferred display. (This will have no effect if you've only one display connected.)

9. Automatic PC clean up
If inexperienced PC users sometimes access your system then you'll know that, well, this can cause problems. Leave them alone for too long and they'll mess up your settings, install dubious programs, delete important files and cause all kinds of havoc. But Microsoft feels your pain, and Windows 7 will include a possible solution: PC Safeguard. This lets your less technical users log on, play games, use the browser or chat on an instant messenger, say, just as normal. But when they log off, any settings they've changed are undone, and any files they've saved are deleted. Which means it's much more difficult to mess up your PC.

This isn't a new technology. Microsoft have made their Shared Computer Toolkit (aka Windows SteadyState) freely available for years, and this does exactly the same thing (it's more configurable, too). This is the first time it's been fully integrated with Windows, though, which makes it much easier to use.

To give PC Safeguard a try, go to Control Panel > User Accounts and Family Safety > User Accounts > Manage another account > Create a new account. Enter an account name, click Create, then click the account, select Set Up PC Safeguard > Turn on PC Safeguard > Apply. Log on as that user, try downloading and installing a program, then restart and log on again to confirm that the software has gone.

10. Understanding System Restore
Using System Restore in previous versions of Windows has been something of a gamble. There's no way of telling which applications or drivers it might affect - you just have to try it and see.

Windows 7 is different. Right-click Computer, select Properties > System Protection > System Restore > Next, and choose the restore point you'd like to use. Click the new button to 'Scan for affected programs' and Windows will tell you which (if any) programs and drivers will be deleted or recovered by selecting this restore point.

11. Set the time zone
System administrators will appreciate the new command line tzutil.exe utility, which lets you set a PC's time zone from scripts. If you wanted to set a PC to Greenwich Mean Time, for instance, you'd use the command

tzutil /s "gmt standard time"

The command "tzutil /g" displays the current time zone, "tzutil /l" lists all possible time zones, and "tzutil /?" displays details on how the command works.

12. Calibrate your screen
The colours you see on your screen will vary depending on your monitor, graphics cards settings, lighting and more, yet most people use the same default Windows colour profile. And that means a digital photo you think looks perfect might appear very poor to everybody else. Fortunately Windows 7 now provides a Display Colour Calibration Wizard that helps you properly set up your brightness, contrast and colour settings, and a ClearType tuner to ensure text is crisp and sharp. Click Start, type DCCW and press [Enter] to give it a try.

Windows 7 Interface Tweaks

13. Right-click everything
At first glance Windows 7 bears a striking resemblance to Vista, but there's an easy way to begin spotting the differences - just right-click things.

Right-click an empty part of the desktop, for instance, and you'll find a menu entry to set your screen resolution. No need to go browsing through the display settings any more.

Right-click the Explorer icon on the taskbar for speedy access to common system folders: Documents, Pictures, the Windows folder, and more.

And if you don't plan on using Internet Explorer then you probably won't want its icon permanently displayed on the taskbar. Right-click the icon, select 'Unpin this program from the taskbar', then go install Firefox, instead.

14. Desktop slideshow
Windows 7 comes with some very attractive new wallpapers, and it's not always easy to decide which one you like the best. So why not let choose a few, and let Windows display them all in a desktop slideshow? Right-click an empty part of the desktop, select Personalise > Desktop Background, then hold down Ctrl as you click on the images you like. Choose how often you'd like the images to be changed (anything from daily to once every 10 seconds), select Shuffle if you'd like the backgrounds to appear in a random order, then click Save Changes and enjoy the show.

15. RSS-powered wallpaper
And if a slideshow based on your standard wallpaper isn't enough, then you can always create a theme that extracts images from an RSS feed. This isn't fully implemented in the beta yet, but Long Zheng has createda few sample themes to illustrate how it works. And Jamie Thompson takes this even further, with a theme that always displays the latest BBC news and weather on your desktop.

16. Recover screen space
The new Windows 7 taskbar acts as one big quick launch toolbar that can hold whatever program shortcuts you like (just right-click one and select Pin To Taskbar). And that's fine, except it does consume a little more screen real estate than we'd like. Shrink it to a more manageable size by right-clicking the Start orb, then Properties > Taskbar > Use small icons > OK.

17. Restore the Quick Launch Toolbar
If you're unhappy with the new taskbar, even after shrinking it, then it only takes a moment to restore the old Quick Launch Toolbar.

Now right-click the taskbar, clear 'Lock the taskbar', and you should see the Quick Launch toolbar, probably to the right. Right-click its divider, clear Show Text and Show Title to minimise the space it takes up. Complete the job by right-clicking the bar and selecting View > Small Icons for the true retro look.

18. Custom power switch
By default, Windows 7 displays a plain text 'Shut down' button on the Start menu, but it only takes a moment to change this action to something else. If you reboot your PC a few times every day then that might make more sense as a default action: right-click the Start orb, select Properties and set the 'Power boot action' to 'Restart' to make it happen.

19. Auto arrange your desktop
If your Windows 7 desktop has icons scattered everywhere then you could right-click it and select View > Auto arrange, just as in Vista. But a simpler solution is just to press and hold down [F5], and Windows will automatically arrange its icons for you.

20. Disable smart window arrangement
Windows 7 features interesting new ways to intelligently arrange your windows, so that (for example) if you drag a window to the top of the screen then it will maximise. We like the new system, but if you find it distracting then it's easily disabled. Run REGEDIT, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop, set WindowArrangementActive to 0, reboot, and your windows will behave just as they always did.

21. Remove 'Send Feedback'
Microsoft has released Windows 7 to get feedback from the public, so it's important to take advantage of that. If you don't like something, or have a good idea, then click Send Feedback and tell them what's on your mind. You really could make a difference. But once you've done all that then you might want to get rid of the Send Feedback links on your windows, and this is very easy to do. Just launch REGEDIT, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop, set the FeedbackToolEnabled value to zero and restart your PC. (Set it to 3 if you'd like the Send Feedback links back again.)

22. Display your drives
Click Computer in Windows 7 and you might see a strange lack of drives, but don't panic, it's just Microsoft trying to be helpful: drives like memory card readers are no longer displayed if they're empty. We think it's an improvement, but if you disagree then it's easy to get your empty drives back. Launch Explorer, click Tools > Folder Options > View and clear 'Hide empty drives in the computer folder'.

23. See more detail
The new and improved Windows 7 magnifier offers a much easier way to zoom in on any area of the screen. Launch it and you can now define a scale factor and docking position, and once activated it can track your keyboard focus around the screen. Press [Tab] as you move around a dialog box, say, and it'll automatically zoom in on the currently active control.

Useful Windows 7 Enhancements

24. Protect your MP3 files
Along with many good new features, the Windows 7 beta also includes a nasty bug. Its version of Windows Media Player 12 will automatically add missing metadata, including album art, and this can overwrite the first few seconds of the file. Oops. Installing an update may fix this (see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961367) but it would probably be a very good idea to back up your MP3 files, too.

25. Customise UAC
Windows Vista's User Account Control was a good idea in practice, but poor implementation put many people off - it raised far too many alerts. Fortunately Windows 7 displays less warnings by default, and lets you further fine-tune UAC to suit your preferred balance between security and a pop-up free life (Start > Control Panel > Change User Account Control Settings).

26. Use Sticky Notes
The Sticky Notes app is both simpler and more useful in Windows 7. Launch StikyNot.exe and you can type notes at the keyboard; right-click a note to change its colour; click the + sign on the note title bar to add another note; and click a note and press [Alt]+[4] to close the note windows (your notes will automatically be saved).

27. Open folder in new process
By default Windows 7 opens folders in the same process. This saves system resources, but means one folder crash can bring down the entire shell. If your system seems unstable, or you're doing something in Explorer that regularly seems to causes crashes, then open Computer, hold down shift, right-click on your drive and select Open in New Process. The folder will now be launched in a separate process, and so a crash is less likely to affect anything else.

28. Watch more videos
Windows Media Player 12 is a powerful program, but it still won't play all the audio and video files you'll find online. Fortunately the first freeware Windows 7 codecs package [shark007.net/win7codecs.html] has just been released, and installing it could get your troublesome multimedia files playing again.

29. Preview fonts
Open the Fonts window in Windows XP and Vista and you'll see the font names, probably with icons to tell you whether they're TrueType or OpenType, but that's about it. Feeble, really, but Windows 7 sees some useful font-related improvement.

Open the new fonts window and you'll find a little preview for every font, giving you a quick idea of how they're going to look.

The tedium of scrolling through multiple entries for each family, like Times New Roman, Times New Roman Bold, Times New Roman Bold Italic and so on, has finally ended. There's now just a single entry for each font (though you can still see all other members of the family).

And there's a new OpenType font, Gabriola, added to the mix. It's an attractive script font, well worth a try the next time you need a stylish document that stands out from the crowd.

30. Restore your gadgets
Windows 7 has tightened up its security by refusing to run gadgets if UAC has been turned off, so limiting the damage malicious unsigned gadgets can do to your system. If you've disabled UAC, miss your gadgets and are happy to accept the security risk, though, there's an easy Registry way to get everything back to normal. Run REGEDIT, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Sidebar\Settings, create a new DWORD value called AllowElevatedProcess and set it to 1. Your gadgets should start working again right away.

31. New WordPad formats
By default WordPad will save documents in Rich Text Format, just as before. But browse the Save As Format list and you'll see you can also save (or open, actually) files in the Office 2007 .docx or OpenDocument .odt formats.

32. Protect your data
USB flash drives are convenient, portable, and very easy to lose. Which is a problem, especially if they're carrying sensitive data. Fortunately Windows 7 has the solution: encrypt your documents with an extension of Microsoft's BitLocker technology, and only someone with the password will be able to access it. Right-click your USB flash drive, select Turn on BitLocker and follow the instructions to protect your private files.

33. Search everything
Windows 7 can now try to search the contents of just about any file type, useful if it's not currently finding the data you need. The problem? Searches can be much, much slower. If you'd like to try it anyway, then launch Explorer, click Tools > Folder Options > View and check "Try to search the content of unknown file types".

34. Configure your favourite music
The Windows 7 Media Centre now comes with an option to play your "favourite music", which by default creates a changing list of songs based on your ratings, how often you play them, and when they were added (it's assumed you'll prefer songs you've added in the last 30 days). If this doesn't work then you can tweak how Media Centre decides what a "favourite" tune is- click Tasks > Settings > Music > Favourite Music and configure the program to suit your needs.

35. Customise System Restore
There was very little you could do to configure System Restore in Vista, but Windows 7 improves the situation with a couple of useful setup options.

Click the Start orb, right-click Computer and select Properties > System Protection > Configure, and set the Max Usage value to a size that suits your needs (larger to hold more restore points, smaller to save disk space).

And if you don't need System Restore to save Windows settings then choose the "Only restore previous versions of files" option. Windows 7 won't back up your Registry, which means you'll squeeze more restore points and file backups into the available disk space. System Restore is much less likely to get an unbootable PC working again, though, so use this trick at your own risk.

36. Run As
Hold down shift, right-click any program shortcut, and you'll see an option to run the program as a different user, handy if you're logged in to the kids' limited account and need to run something with higher privileges. This isn't really a new feature - Windows XP had a Run As option that did the same thing - but Microsoft stripped it out of Vista, so it's good to see they've had a change of heart.

38. Tweak PC volume
By default Windows 7 will now automatically reduce the volume of your PC's sounds whenever it detects you're making or receiving PC-based phone calls. If this proves annoying (or maybe you'd like it to turn off other sounds altogether) then you can easily change the settings accordingly. Just right-click the speaker icon in your taskbar, select Sounds > Communications, and tell Windows what you'd like it to do.

Windows 7 Performance and Productivity Tips

39. Find bottlenecks
From what we've seen so far Windows 7 is already performing better than Vista, but if your PC seems sluggish then it's now much easier to uncover the bottleneck. Click Start, type RESMON and press [Enter] to launch the Resource Monitor, then click the CPU, Memory, Disk or Network tabs. Windows 7 will immediately show which processes are hogging the most system resources.

The CPU view is particularly useful, and provides something like a more powerful version of Task Manager. If a program has locked up, for example, then right-click its name in the list and select Analyze Process. Windows will then try to tell you why it's hanging - the program might be waiting for another process, perhaps - which could give you the information you need to fix the problem.

41. Faster program launches
If you've launched one instance of a program but want to start another, then don't work your way back through the Start menu. It's much quicker to just hold down Shift and click on the program's icon (or middle-click it), and Windows 7 will start a new instance for you.

42. Speedy video access
Want faster access to your Videos folder? Windows 7 now lets you add it to the Start menu. Just right-click the Start orb, click Properties > Start Menu > Customize, and set the Videos option to "Display as a link". If you've a TV tuner that works with Windows 7 then you'll appreciate the new option to display the Recorded TV folder on the Start menu, too.

43. Run web searches
The Windows 7 search tool can now be easily extended to search online resources, just as long as someone creates an appropriate search connector. To add Flickr support, say, visit I Started Something, click Download the Connector, choose the Open option and watch as it's downloaded (the file is tiny, it'll only take a moment). A "Flickr Search" option will be added to your Searches folder, and you'll be able to search images from your desktop.

44. Schedule Media Centre downloads
You can now tell Windows Media Centre to download data at a specific time, perhaps overnight, a useful way to prevent it sapping your bandwidth for the rest of the day. Launch Media Centre, go to Tasks > Settings > General > Automatic Download Options, and set the download start and stop times that you'd like it to use.

45. Multi-threaded Robocopies
Anyone who's ever used the excellent command-line robocopy tool will appreciate the new switches introduced with Windows 7. Our favourite, /MT, can improve speed by carrying out multi-threaded copies with the number of threads you specify (you can have up to 128, though that might be going a little too far). Enter robocopy /? at a command line for the full details.

46. Really remove the sidebar
At first glance you might think Windows 7 has got rid of the sidebar, but don't be fooled. Gadgets are still hosted by the Sidebar.exe process, it's just that this is now launched automatically when Windows boots. If you don't plan on ever using gadgets then you could delete the Sidebar Registry entry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, and recover a small amount of RAM. That might be a little risky, though, as we're not quite sure what else the sidebar process does in Windows 7. The safest approach is to disable it temporarily by launching MSCONFIG.EXE, clicking the Startup tab and clearing the box next to the Startup entry. Now reboot and test Windows 7 for a day or two to confirm everything is still working, before finally deleting the sidebar Registry entry.

47. Load IE faster
Some Internet Explorer add-ons can take a while to start, dragging down the browser's performance, but at least IE8 can now point a finger at the worst resource hogs. Click Tools > Manage Add-ons, check the Load Time in the right-hand column, and you'll immediately see which browser extensions are slowing you down.

48. An Alt+Tab alternative
You want to access one of the five Explorer windows you have open, but there are so many other programs running that Alt+Tab makes it hard to pick out what you need. The solution? Hold down the Ctrl key while you click on the Explorer icon. Windows 7 will then cycle through the Explorer windows only, a much quicker way to locate the right one. (And of course this works with any application that has multiple windows open.)

49. Block annoying alerts
Just like Vista, Windows 7 will display a suitably stern warning if it thinks your antivirus, firewall or other security settings are incorrect.

But unlike Vista, if you disagree then you can now turn off alerts on individual topics. If you no longer want to see warnings just because you've dared to turn off the Windows firewall, say, then click Control Panel > System and Security > Action Centre > Change Action Centre settings, clear the Network Firewall box and click OK.

50. Parallel defrags
The standard Windows 7 defragger offers a little more control than we saw in Vista, and the command line version also has some interesting new features. The /r switch will defrag multiple drives in parallel, for instance (they'll obviously need to be physically separate drives for this to be useful). The /h switch runs the defrag at a higher than normal priority, and the /u switch provides regular progress reports so you can see exactly what's going on. Enter the command

defrag /c /h /u /r

in a command window to speedily defrag a system with multiple drives, or enter defrag /? to view the new options for yourself.

Gmail is one of the major webmail service provider across the globe. But as we all know Gmail still carries that 4 letter word BETA. Sometimes we may wonder, why Gmail is still in the testing stage even after years of it’s emergence. Here is one small reason for that.

Gmail follows a strict rule that doesn’t allow it’s users to have their first or the last name contain the term Gmail or Google. That is, while signing up for a new Gmail account the users cannot choose a first or last name that contains the term Gmail or Google.

This rule is implemented by Gmail for obvious reasons, because if the users are allowed to keep their first or the last name that contains the term Gmail or Google, then it is possible to easily impersonate the identity of Gmail (or Gmail Team) and engage themselves in phising or social engineering attacks on the innocent users. This can be done by simply choosing the first and last name with the following combinations.

First NameLast Name

Gmail Team

Google Team

Gmail Password Assistance

From the above snapshot we can see that, Gmail has made a good move in stopping the users from abusing it’s services. However this move isn’t just enough to prevent the malicious users from impersonating the Gmail’s identity. Because Gmail has a small vulnerability that can be exploited so that the users can still have their name contain the terms Gmail or Google.

You may wonder how to do this. But it’s very simple.

1. Login to your Gmail account and click on Settings.
2. Select Accounts tab
3. Click on edit info
4. In the Name field, select the second radio button and enter the name of your choice. Click on Save Changes and you’re done!
Now, Gmail accepts any name even if it contains the term Google or Gmail. You can see from the below snapshot

Allowing the users to have their names contain the terms Gmail or Google is a serious vulnerability even though it doesn’t seem to be a major one. This is because a hacker or a malicious attacker can easily exploit this flaw and send phishing emails to other Gmail users asking for sensitive information such as their passwords. Most of the users don’t even hesitate to send their passwords since they believe that they are sending it to Gmail Team (or someone authorized). But in reality they are sending it to an attacker who uses these information to seek personal benefits.

So the bottomline is, if you get any emails that appears to have come from the Gmail Team or similar, don’t trust them! Anyone can send such emails to fool you and take away your personal details. Hope that Gmail will fix this vulnerability as soon as possible to avoid any disasters.

You can easily find if your friend is invisible or actually offline using this trick. But to use this trick, you have to catch him online at least once. So if you doubt that one of your friends is invisible from you too often, then-

1. Whenever you see him online, just set the chat as off the record with him.
If you are using the Gmail’s inbuilt chat facility, then simply click on the Video & more link in the lower left corner of the chat widget and click on Go off the record.

The message You are now off the record will be displayed after that.
If you are on Gtalk, then click on settings->chat, and check the box that says, don’t save my chat history in my gmail account. And save this setting.
So, now your chats with your naughty friend are off the record.2. Now you can easily detect if your friend is actually offline or just invisible just by sending her any message. If she is actually offline, then the following message will be displayed,

And if she is online, nothing will be displayed, which means that she actually received your chat message, and thus, is online.

Why it works?

By default, all your chat sessions are stored in your Gmail account (and in the account of the person who chatted with you). Now, once your chat with one of your friend (whom you are spying ) are set off the record, they are no longer stored in the Gmail account. So if you send a chat message to her, it must be displayed as a popup windows. If she is actually offline, it can’t be done, so the message xyz did not receive your chat is displayed. On the other hand if she is just invisible, she can see the popup, and hence no message is displayed.

Normally, when you open up multiple Firefox windows, they share the same cookie data. If you’re logged in to one account on a website, and you open up another browser, you are automatically logged into that same account on that same website automatically. This is designed behavior in Firefox.

To set this up to work first you need to create 2 profiles.

* Close all your firefox windows
* do Start -> Run and then run this command: “c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox” -ProfileManager
* Create another profile using the profile manager
* Create a shortcut to user your second profile (you need to know what you named it, and it is case sensitive)
* Right click on the firefox icon on your desktop and select “create shortcut”
* Right click on the new icon and select properties
* The target field in the new window is something like: “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe”. Change it to be: “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe” -P “YourProfileName” (where YourProfileName is the name of the new profile you just created)

You’re now done creating the profiles.

P.S.-Althought I don't know how to do the same in Linux. Any help??

Now, you need to do the small hack.

Go to Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Environment Variables -> System Variables -> New

In the 2 boxes, put MOZ_NO_REMOTE and 1 (so you are setting the environment variable MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1) and click ok, ok, ok.

That’s it. When you open firefox normally (with the normal icon) it will open your default profile.
When you click on the second shortcut (the one you just made), it will open your second profile.

The two magically don’t share cookies, and now you can login to 2 gmail accounts at the same time, without using IE.

This will also work with any other site (not just gmail and google accounts) that requires you to login.

If you use Chrome then

Open Chrome -> Open One Mail Account of yours.
Press CTRL +SHIFT + N to Openup Incognito Window and at there Open Another Gmail Account of yours , Cookies at the New window will expire as soon as you close the Incognito Window.

Simple if you are a user of Chrome.

For IE8 Users

If you are using IE8, you need not do any hacking. Just go to File->New Session. And it will open up a new session for you and you can login using another id. you can open n number of new sessions. And like Chrome, you can open Inprivate windows too and login to another id..

Its the Most Familiar thing a Normal Windows User encounters , so familiar that its a part of his/her daily life , all thanks to Microsoft for their Incredible OS , this is the Screen with a Purpose , to make the user Tear there hair . Jokes apart , this is really an issue if you encounter this. But after encounter how do you make sure its not coming back ? How to counter Attack or Defend your PC from such a Crash ?

Well in this very Guide we are going to Learn the very same thing about how to Prevent such BSOD after analyzing it , so we can be ready next time .

For Intro Some FAQs

Q: What is BSOD ?A : The Blue Screen of Death (also known as a stop error, BSoD, bluescreen, or Blue Screen of Doom) is a colloquialism used for the error screen displayed by some operating systems, most notably Microsoft Windows, after encountering a critical system error which can cause the system to shut down to prevent damage. [As Per Wikipedia]

Q: What causes it ?A : Bluescreens on NT-based Windows systems are usually caused by poorly-written device drivers or malfunctioning hardware. They can also be caused by physical faults such as faulty memory, power supplies, overheating of computer components, or hardware running beyond its specification limits. [As Per Wikipedia]

The BSOD

After a Certain Crash , the above Screen appears , Known as BSOD.

But its sort of confusing to understand it with all the text and codes written above . Ok we will simplify it for you. Here are some Specific Parts which are important for us to understand about the error.

Areas / Parts of BSOD

Bug / Error Name

This is a Most important Area out of all messages at BSOD , which helps us to know about the Error More , It sorts down the error to specific parts to help us out , But in most cases we require more information that that.You have to Note it down somewhere and we will come , This Information is present in Capital Letters with underscores in place of Spaces.

BSOD Resolving Tip / Suggestion

This Part gives you a hint on how to Resolves / Solve the BSOD from occurring again , this text is most of the time the same and doesn't change much , as it states the causes and solution of Most reason behind the Occurrence of BSOD , which are Software Error , Hardware Conflict , Physical Incompatibility etc.

STOP / Bug Check Codes

Second most Important Detail we need to note down , This helps the issue to further minutely sort down the error . This Codes are present In Hex Code , and the Data in the bracket further details the issue out .

Memory Dumping Process.

This is the process , is known as Memory Dumping , quite simply Explained , what it does , is that it Saves the exact mirror images of what was in the System Memory , when the crash happened , and this dump is stored locally in as a file , It helps to understand the causes better , as it explains what exactly was going on when the crash occurred.

The Memory Dump (If any) can be found under "C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\" Assumes C is your System Drive. The files will be with a *.dmp format.

What you Need to Note ?

Well To help in analysis , you have to note down two things

Bug / Error Name

Stop / Bug Check Code

Many Users have Issue regarding noting the Information down , as The Moment the BSOD occurs , the system restarts Automatically. So how to Prevent Restarts in Case of BSODs ? So user can note the Above information down ?

You are done , now your system won't restart in Case of BSOD , that is you have to manually press Reset Button to Restart your PC.

Analysis !

Now the main part , how to analyze the BSOD causes ?

As explained in the Above Paragraph , you will be needing the Stop Code + Error Name and Note it down. Plus if Memory is Dumped then we can analyze that also , it will be described in following paragraph.

:006
SET /P AC_HIDE=[*] Do you want to hide the account from the XP logon screen? (y/n) :
IF NOT %AC_HIDE%==y GOTO END
echo Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00>%TEMP%\addregistry.reg
echo [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows

So here is the situation. you were watching your favorite TV programme and as usual in program advertisement breaks come. And you don’t wanna watch those Advertisements as you already have everything from your Wish list. Now as a part of human tendancy, you pick up the remote and try to shuffle through the channels. But wait… Its not working. You try to shrug off your remote on your hand but its still the same. You disparately try pressing every single key but all in vain. Then you thought “Oh… its the battery!” But that may not be the case. And there might have been a case when you did not use your Music System’s remote for a long time and it was lying in dust somewhere. Now you took it out and its not working. What to do in this situation. Is there any problem with your remote or there is something wrong with the Music System or TV ? How to determine who is the culprit. This little trick will help you identify the culprit.

What do you need :

* A Mobile phone with Camera (Any Phone will do)
* A remote which is not working (Any IR based remote)

This trick would work for any remote control that works on the principle of infrared.

point your remote control into your camera lens and then push some buttons on the remote. Now look at the camera’s LCD screen (not in the optical viewfinder). If the remote works, you’ll see a flashing light where the remote’s infrared emitter is. If you see no such light, then you can be pretty sure that the problem lies with the remote.

It is boring to visit your friend profile & posting a scrap . I have nearly about 100 orkut friend . Then I find out a working way to send one common mail to all orkut body’s . Then check this out this way :-

Oct 30, 2009

The next time you have an afternoon free, dig out that old box of cassette tapes you squirreled away in the basement. It's time to resurrect your collection of Phil Collins albums, Stephen King audiobooks, and other treasures of the 80s. With a few simple tools and your PC, you can turn these forgotten jewels into digital audio files that will live forever.

There's more to this idea than a trip down memory lane. Now that tape decks have all but disappeared from car stereos and Walkmans are a thing of the past, there's really no other way to listen to cassettes, forgotten or otherwise. You invested big bucks in these things, so why not get your money's worth? Here's how to bring your tapes into the digital age.

Why Bother?

Okay, I'll fess up: tapes sound like doo-doo compared with CDs and digital downloads. Sure, they were fine when we didn't know any better, but they're expressly an analog media. If you're a fidelity snob, you probably won't be happy with the quality of your converted Def Leppard tapes.

That said, we're not talking AM radio, here—if the tapes are in reasonably good condition, you can expect reasonably good audio. And if you're resurrecting audiobooks, kids' tapes, out-of-print material or even bootleg recordings, fidelity really isn't an issue. The ultimate goal is simply to let these tapes be heard again.

In fact, once you learn how to bring tapes into the digital age, you may want to start looking for cheap deals on them. By trolling garage sales, eBay and other resale sources, I've scored serious bargains on audiobook cassettes that cost a fortune on CD. So this is not only a practical exercise, it's potentially a money-saving one as well.

What You Need

A cassette player. I dug out my old Walkman, which I found perfectly suited to the task, but you could also use a tape deck.

A stereo patch cord. Specifically, you need a cable that connects your Walkman's headphone jack to your sound card's line-in jack. You can get one at Radio Shack for around $5. If you're connecting a tape deck, you may need an adapter to accommodate its larger headphone jack.

Audacity, an open-source, cross-platform program that makes simple work of recording and editing audio. It's available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. If you plan to turn your tapes into MP3 files, make sure to get the LAME MP3 encoder as well; there's a link to it on the Audacity download page.

Getting Started

After installing Audacity, you'll need to tweak a few settings. First, visit Preferences (accessible under the Edit menu) and make sure Channels is set to two. In the same window, hit the File Formats tab and configure Audacity for use with the LAME MP3 encoder you downloaded. Click the Find Library button, then navigate to the folder on your hard drive containing the file lame_enc.dll.

Finally, choose a bit rate for your recordings. 128Kbps is more than ample for audiobooks, but for music consider doubling it to 256Kbps.

Now it's time to check your line-in connection and audio levels. Put a tape in your Walkman and start it playing; you should hear sound coming from your PC's speakers. Click the input level meter and enable Start Monitoring to see a live meter. Then you can adjust the input volume using the slider to the right.

Keeping in mind that your first recording may require some trial and error, rewind your tape to the beginning, press Record in Audacity, then start the tape. If it's music, you needn't record each song individually, starting and stopping your tape deck along the way. Instead, let Audacity record the whole side. Then, use the Selection tool to highlight a song (you'll be able to tell where it ends by the few seconds of flatline, which indicate silence) and save the selection as an MP3 (or whatever file format you choose).

If it's a book on tape, you might want to divide the recording into, say, 10-minute segments so it's easier to navigate. This makes organization a bit more complicated, as you'll need to name and tag your MP3s so they'll play sequentially; I recommend something along the lines of 01-Stephen King-The Stand.mp3, 02-Stephen King-The Stand.mp3, and so on.

After you've saved your MP3s, you can use your favorite music manager (I recommend Media Monkey) to apply tags and add album art.